My Best Gift
by kaito136
Summary: Mio's bday present, one-shot, non-Yuri. It wasn't your fault she became like that, you didn't want that either. Just do as her mother said and look after her, after all, she is still your best friend no matter what. Warning: Character near death/crippled


A/N: Hello all. I'm back again and here's a one-shot for our dearest Mio-chan!... … OK SORRY BOSS TAINAKA, MIO'S YOURS, _YOURS!_

Phew, anyway, I know I'm not supposed to be here, but this was typed out before I announce that I'll be away. So there won't be any news or anything about me till the end of Feb! I'll still reply to reviews when I can, so please do review after reading if you can!

Hope you'll enjoy it! (Although I got to admit before hand I think this fanfic is really poorly written since I rushed it out).

Summary: Mio's birthday present, one-shot, non-Yuri. It wasn't your fault she became like that, you didn't want that either, right? Just do as her mother said and look after her, after all, she is still your best friend no matter what. Friendship / Tragedy / Angst

Warning: Do no read if you cannot handle any of the K-ON! girls facing near-deaths or being crippled for life. Rated T for somewhat painful descriptions (I hope) and language.

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters, locations, or whatever brand whatever crap that is mentioned here. All I own is this pathetic plot and my pathetic language. That's a good thing. By the way, my English sucks. But I welcome corrections.

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><p>"TAINAKA RITSU!"<p>

A girl with amber eyes looked up to the source of voice calling out to her name. She slowly lifted her lips off her harmonica and straightened her back to increase her height for better view. Her eyes glinted with excitement as she sees her friend charging towards her.

"Hey! Good Eveni–"

"What did I say about leaving your house without my permission?" the other girl snapped and roared into her ears. She gritted her teeth so tightly, suppressing all her anger and worries into one expression, frightening every single person within that area.

As if knocked by a sudden realization, Ritsu gasped.

That's right. Her presence in front of the train station was not supposed to be found out by this other girl. What… What should she do right now?

She began to sweat drop as she turned her head to look at her side nervously. Scared indeed, who won't? Imagine you were happily playing your harmonica away in front of a train station when a _Hulk_ came charging towards you, screaming your name so that half the station gets aware of your presence.

"You're coming home with me," the standing girl suddenly wrapped her arms around Ritsu and pulled her up instantly. Ritsu tried to struggle but to no avail as her buttocks hit the turquoise-colour wheelchair seat.

"Mi-Mio!" the amber-eye girl protested when her chair gets a sudden 180º turn, "at least let me finish the tune I was playing!"

"You have no fucking idea how worried your mum is," Mio began to push the wheelchair away from the station, "you better go home and apologise right away."

Silence took over the space between them as Ritsu lowered her head in deep remorse. She decided she could not win the argument with Mio, after all, it was her own choice of action that landed her into this situation and getting her whole family worried over her.

Noticing the silence, Mio stopped. Guilt took over her emotions instantly as she stared down at the messy locks below her. Ritsu was shorter than her for all she can remember, but never this short, never below her chest area by so much… Never ever. Not in any corner of her memories was Ritsu this short…

Mio's mind start to get cloudy as she stumbled a few steps backward and grabbed onto Ritsu's wheelchair for support. The sudden force behind the other girl's back caught her attention as quickly spun around.

"Mio!"

The raven-hair girl shut her eyes tightly and took in a deep breath before supporting herself back up. Her lips curled up a little, ensuring her friend that she's fine. Ritsu frowned.

'_Obviously she's not fine, what the heck was she trying to think she is?'_

Annoyed, as she always is, Ritsu sighed. Not like she can do anything. Even if Mio were to faint right now on the spot, she can't do anything. She could not go down and pick her up, support her, or even dial a number on her phone and call for help. She was helpless, to herself and to others. Helpless ever since the day she lost both her legs, and both her arms.

"I… I'm fine, Ritsu. Sorry about it…" Mio whispered. "Let's go."

The wheel-chair bound could only nod silently as they head towards the Tainaka household.

"Tainaka-san~" Mio called out the moment she swing the door open and pushed Ritsu in.

"Mio! H-have you…" Mrs Tainaka popped her head out of the living room and then she noticed the tawny-hair girl. "RITSU!"

Ritsu gasped again and giggled awhile after adjusting herself to her mum's sudden embrace. She gave a light smile before whispering into her almost-crying mother's ears, "I'm home… Mum."

Mrs Tainaka's embrace tightened as she swallowed her sobs, "D-don't… Do that… Again…" Ritsu sighed and nodded against her mother's shoulders. After awhile, Mrs Tainaka let go of Ritsu and looked at Mio with a gentle smile, "Thank you, Mio. I thought for a moment what if…" she began choking, "what if Ritsu… never come back again…"

Ritsu heaved a loud sigh as she glanced at Mio before grunting at her mum, "I'm HOME, Mum! What are you talking about?"

"Hush, Ritsu. You know what she was talking about," Mio frowned before looking back up to Ritsu's mother, "Please take care of her, Tainaka-san. I'll have to head back to work. Please excuse me…"

With that, Mio gave a polite bow and left the Tainaka household swiftly. Oddly, she felt light-headed after hearing what Mrs Tainaka said about Ritsu not coming home. Her heart aches as she recalls the very day when every thing between her and the Tainaka family changed.

* * *

><p>"<em>Mio, it's getting late. Let's go home already," Ritsu poked the photographer's shoulder impatiently.<em>

_The sun was already setting and the sky started to form a pretty gradient of flame orange to deep sky blue. Mio's cheeks were still glued to her black Lomo LC-A+ despite hours of snapping and changing of films. The film that was currently loaded in the LC-A+ was probably her 4__th__ one for the day._

"_Mio~"_

_The mentioned girl treated her name as the wind and took a step forward to the middle of a quiet street around their neighborhood, pointing her camera up to the gradient sky._

"_We can continue tomorrow, c'mon~"_

_She tilted her head left and right, portrait and landscape, vertical, horizontal and diagonal. _Which would be the best to capture this moment?_ That was every photographer's dilemma, especially when it comes to films. Her lips pouted a bit as she squinted and slowly shifted her finger above the shutter release button…_

_Suddenly a flash of light blinded her through her viewfinder. Mio quickly removed her camera off her sight and shield her eyes with her arm from the source of light._

_Everything happened too quickly. Any thing that was left in her memory was a sudden call of her name and a huge force was pushed against her side._

_The next thing that snapped into her was a loud bang, and everything went silent._

_The photographer bit her lower lip and pushed herself up from the floor slowly. Her precious camera had flew about a two arms-length away from her but a pin-sharp pain caught her attention. A quick glance to her left arm made her almost sick, the sight of blood dripping across her pale skin was too disturbing._

"_FUCK!"_

_Mio frowned upon hearing the cursed word and turned around. She froze._

_The driver of a huge cement-carry truck jumped out from his tall vehicle seat that was about a meter high and dashed towards… some thing._

_The girl tried to catch her breath but she couldn't. Her mind was blank as she tried to process what happened just a few seconds ago and how she got her arm injured. Her eyes widen and remained focused on the object lying on the floor, motionless. She was lost; she didn't know what to do._

_The man in white singlet squatted down beside the motionless person and observed for a moment before he turned to face Mio. Mio remained frozen. The man cursed again and fished his cell phone out to call for help._

_Finally, strength seemed to have returned to her as Mio crawled slowly towards the lying person. Shakily, Mio's breaths became irregular when the face of that person registered into her mind. Tears started forming at the edge of her eyes as she reaches her hand out to push her friend's long, untidy bangs away from her eyes._

"_R-Ritsu…" the raven-hair girl began to sob as she cupped her hand around her motionless friend's cheek, "w-wake… wake up…"_

_The emotion she was experiencing was overwhelming; her heart aches, her head's spinning, her breath's irregular, her visions' blurred. She swallowed hard when her eyes start to glance around the accident scene. The strong stench of blood and sight of red made her nausea, but it was the sight of oddly positioned limbs of Tainaka Ritsu that made her really sick._

_And the said girl's eyes remained shut._

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><p>Mio sneezed as she pulled the zip of her workplace's coat even higher up her neck. She was at the brim of choking herself again but she was too cold to consider that. Her steps quickened as she stepped into her workplace, a convenient store that was named after numbers.<p>

The girl bowed quietly as she enters and headed into the storeroom to continue her stock-check. Thank goodness her manager of that outlet was an understanding lady and would let her off for an hour to hunt for her missing friend who needed special attention more than anyone else.

It was still amazing that her said friend could bring herself out of her house without her mother noticing, and even build a wire-framed stand that could be locked around her shoulders and positioned her harmonica just a little in front of her lips. The only motion she could carry out on her disabled body was her neck and lips.

"Akiyama-san."

Surprised by the sudden sound, Mio quickly turn around to face her manager. She shuddered by the sudden appearance, "Y-yes, H-Hikasa-san…?" The staff lowered her head in respect for the higher ranked.

Hikasa only smiled briefly as she hands an envelope to Mio. She nodded a little and received the envelope with both hands.

"Your pay for this month. Good job, Akiyama-san," Hikasa patted her back and left the storeroom.

A little curve edged upwards by the staff's lips as she pocketed her pay. Her December pay is finally here; time to return some gratitude for the Tainaka family.

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><p>"<em>W-wake… Wake up…"<em>

_The bassist's fingers slid across those messy locks as she began shaking the girl lightly, as if it was a morning call and the shorter girl could not wake up in time again._

_Mio sat beside her friend and tears just keep flowing freely, downwards, without her permission. She kept shaking, shaking, and shaking her friend._

_Ritsu must be stubborn again to not wake up. Yes, she always is. Ritsu is the biggest bastard for not waking up on time. She must have read manga till late night again… Those manga that were taken without permission from her…_

_Mio's arm remained attached to the motionless body, shaking her lightly when another flash of light and sounds of siren came nearer to them._

_Paramedics quickly came forward to the girls and one of them had to pull Mio away as she remained hitched to Ritsu. She cried loudly and uncontrollably when the paramedics took Ritsu into the ambulance. This whole scene was terrible to the dark-colour hair girl–it was just like the Death God's here to claim her friend's soul away._

"_Ritsu!" Mio cried again when she managed to push the man holding onto her and dashed onto the ambulance, sliding herself onto the seat beside to where the eyes-shut girl was lying. She could not care less–she just wanted to see her friend there. The paramedics gave in and quickly drove them to the nearest hospital. From any right person's mind, they could easily see that Ritsu was already in critical conditions._

_A few hours later, a blank-mind Akiyama Mio sat outside a 2-directional swing door room that has a sign, which was brightly lit, that says "EMERGENCY ROOM". Her arm was bandaged, and from the many words the doctor said to her, she only registered a few words into her head as the rest of her mind were preoccupied by her best friend. Those few words only came to make a little sense to her– she had hairline-crack in the arm and no activity to be made using that left arm._

_Mio scoffed and shook her head. That means she had to take her University entrance exam either by computer or she cannot take at all since her left arm would be disabled for a few months till fully recovered._

_Just then, many footsteps came audibly nearer to her. They were hasty, and heavy. The longhair girl brought her gaze upwards and faced with the other three Tainakas, and her other three Light Music Club friends. They were all panting and eyes fixed onto the bandaged girl. None of them said a thing; they knew it was best not to bring it up to this injured girl. At least the doctor had told them every thing that he knew and what Mio knew through the phone call. Some of them sat down beside her, and the rest remained standing. None said a word._

_The next thing she knew was, Ritsu was sent into the Intensive Care Unit ward, and she lied there for about two months before transferring into a normal ward, where she remained closed eyes for another eight months. At that period of time, they had all witnessed Ritsu's uneven heartbeat and near-death moments. Light Music Club's drummer could no longer be the drummer anymore without her arms and legs._

_A few weeks passed the coma girl's birthday when her eyes flicked open suddenly. Everyone was overjoyed, but they soon learned that Ritsu had gotten amnesia and it took everything of Akiyama Mio to not break down again._

_The Ritsu who sat before her had no limbs and no memory at all._

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><p>"TAINAKA RITSU!"<p>

Days passed since Mio had gotten her pay and yet when she received another frantic phone call from Mrs Tainaka, she knew she had to take an hour of no-pay leave again to hunt for a certain _idiot _friend.

The same pair of amber orbs glanced up to the on-coming footsteps. Her lips left the silver instrument and she grinned widely, "Mio! Wassu–"

"What have I said about–"

"Stop cutting into my greetings!" Ritsu shouted suddenly. Annoyed as she was, she had lost count the number of times the taller girl had discontinued her sentences.

Irritated that the Ritsu in front of her was still stubborn, Mio screamed back. "Stop taking my words for granted!"

Then the two kept in silence, their glare pierced deeply into each other's eyes but none of them were giving ways. The only sound audible was the announcements from the train station and people's footsteps.

The crippled girl gritted her teeth and pretended to ignore her friend as she place her lips back onto her instrument. The pinkish lips touched the cold edge briefly when within split seconds, a pair of arms grabbed the musician and swung her onto her wheelchair.

Thud!

The wheelchair turned around and headed to the passenger's home. Silence greeted them all the way till they reached the footsteps of Ritsu's house.

Despite being annoyed, Mio gently pushed her friend into the household and greeted the family's housewife. A frown remained on Ritsu as she pushed the controller of her digitalized wheelchair and entered her room on the first floor, ignoring both her mother and Mio.

The younger of the two in the living room sighed, then some thing tickled her mind as she hurriedly search through her backpack in search for an envelope. A soft grin emerged when she pulled out a crumpled envelope and handed it over to the adult.

Mrs Tainaka's eyes widen. "Mio-chan… This is…"

Hands still remained in front of her, Mio bowed down respectfully. "Please accept this, Tainaka-san." She paused. "Let me help out with Ritsu's medical bills."

The adult sighed with a pleasant smile. Receiving the envelope, she patted Mio's head and thanked her. She knew very well Mio had it the hard way ever since Ritsu's accident. This girl could not take her University entrance exam because of an injured arm, and had to work till the next exam comes in order to support herself, and also to play a part in her friend's recovery bills. The amount spent on the now-crippled girl was humongous, and Mio could not help but feel guilty over every thing that happened. The bills, the immobility, and the total destruction of life of her band's ex-drummer.

Mio bowed once more before leaving the house to head back to work.

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><p>"<em>Mio…"<em>

_The named girl cringed. She was just pouring water into a cup for her injured friend sitting on the ward's bed._

"_Although I can't remember any thing… But can you tell me why are you wearing that uniform?" Ritsu continued, "You won't tell me how I lost my arms and legs, and you won't tell me how's the club doing now, but can't you just at least answer me why are you working? Shouldn't you be studying?"_

_Mio sighed. As much as she wanted to keep the secret away from her friend to hide her guilt, she knew that girl would just remember it some day._

"_Mio, I'm talking to you."_

_The guilt that had been haunting her in her dreams for so many months._

"_Hey, can you look at me?"_

_The guilt that finally got suppressed for a while after continuous counseling with the school's counselor and friends._

"_Akiyama Mio!"_

_The part-timer snapped back into reality and faced her friend. Her throat felt dry all of the sudden and cold sweat began to form at her forehead. "I… I…" her eyes shifted side to side constantly, "I… I just… want to help with… your… medical b-bills…"_

_Tears were forming already as she lowered her head. _No, I'm the cause of her becoming like that… I have no right to cry…_ But drops of liquid were already sliding down from her cheeks. She turned away and quickly dry her tears to silent her chokes. There is no way for one girl of their age to not cry at the sight of their best friend's current state._

_Ritsu heaved a loud sigh and giggled. She smiled._

"_Mio. No matter what happened, you're still my best friend." The smile remains, "Even if you're the cause of this whole thing or not, I will never blame you. Don't tell me you're guilty ok?"_

_Mio looked up._

"_I just want you to treasure our friendship."_

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><p>"TAINAKA RI–"<p>

Mio paused.

She stood in front of the empty spot by the steps of the train station where she caught her friend for the past few times.

Blink.

Double blink.

"Ri… Ritsu…?" she murmured as she stared at the space blankly.

She was within the one-hour of no-pay off again when her phone rang during work. But the missing person she was assigned to catch was not where she usually was. Her head went blank as she stood frozen to the ground. It was still snowing and she bet her _baka _friend did not bring enough clothes to keep herself warm.

Mio was on the verge of breaking down, frantically, and maniacally hunting for her friend. But she did not.

Because she had no idea where to find Ritsu.

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><p>Huff, huff, huff… Thump, thump, thump…<p>

Gasps of air and footsteps sinking through the snow were all that she ignored as her perfect eyesight orbs glance frantically around the neighbourhood. She had went to the fast food restaurant, the bank, the park, the pond, the arcade, the school, the hospital, the playground, and now she was only left with the shopping mall.

_Baka Ritsu… Crippled yet she still can go to such distance..!_

The raven hair girl bit her lower lip as she hurried over to the shopping district, praying that nothing happened to her friend. The shop houses were almost empty since it was a weekday morning, people should either be in school or at work right now, and thus spotting a messy hair brunette with a striking bright yellow headband on a wheelchair should be easy.

She was right, just about 4 shops away, her perfect eyesight did not fail her. The yellow headband girl was slowly coming out of a store and turned towards her direction on the wheelchair. A bulky-looking black plastic bag was sitting on her lap.

The standing girl frowned curiously. That bag looked suspicious–or maybe twice the suspicion since it was Tainaka Ritsu. The wheelchair owner had a wide, confident grin plastered to her face as she headed towards where Mio was standing. That face was totally not helping the suspicion. But Mio thought quietly. If Ritsu was being so careful about this thing… Maybe she should just wait.

Hiding herself behind one of the store's pull-up banner, Mio became invisible to Ritsu's limited sight. After a while, the wheelchair zoomed passed where she hid herself and headed to the direction of its owner's house. Worried as she seem, Mio held a little bit of confidence in her friend too, knowing that she would head home safely. She heaved a little sigh and headed back to work.

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><p>Znnggg, znngg, znngg…<p>

_My goodness… It's my rest day, stop bugging me…_

A quick swift and a pillow was pressed against her ear with a few strands of rich black hair.

Znnnggg, znngg, znngg…

Her phone vibrates again.

"ARGH!" Mio groaned loudly as she threw herself up and grabbed the phone to answer it. After awhile, she leaped off her bed and quickly got changed before dashing out of her house to hunt for a certain idiot, _again._

This time she took cautious. That idiot might not be outside of the station as always. She got fooled the other time, so there's no second time. If the said brunette was not there, that certain shop she left the other time would be her second choice immediately.

Thankfully, the piercing sounds of a harmonica blew the girl's thought.

There sat Tainaka Ritsu, right beside her wheelchair, on a mat laid on the floor with an upside down cap in front of her. Her harmonica was fixed on the metal frame that was wrapped around her shoulders as she blew softly.

Anger grew up within Mio, but when she was about to scold, the tune her target was playing caught her ear.

_Do, Do, Re, Mi, Fa, So…_

Her brows tweaked. That tune…

_Do, Do, Re, Mi, La, So…_

Unknowingly, her feet took a step forward, revealing her whole self in front of the attention-seeking brunette. Teeth gritting, she spotted the suspicious black plastic bag sitting on the wheelchair as well.

The tune ended and Ritsu looked up, seemingly unsurprised by Mio's sudden presence. She flashed her trademarked grin to her visitor and jerked her head towards the suspicious black thing.

A quick glance over to the object, Mio heard a command from her friend, "Take it, Mio."

Her gaze shifted back onto the grinning idiot. Confused, Mio held her hand out to the object carefully. It was… a box, within the bag.

"Open it."

The idiot remained grinning.

The raven hair girl slowly pulled the box out of the bag and her eyes widen at the sight of a note.

_HdpbX B!vthddy, NNIo-chdN!_

_3,_

_RItSU_

_01-15-2012_

Hardly recognizable, it took awhile before Mio figured that it was saying "Happy Birthday, Mio-chan!".

_She must have written it with a pen in her mouth._

Mio finally let out a smile. She looked back at her friend whose grin got even wider and carefully tore open the wrapping paper.

At last, the gift was reviewed. It was the newest bass effects pedal she had been eying.

Tears begin to blur her vision as she stared back at the girl on the floor.

"Happy Birthday, Mio!"

It was the widest grin Mio had seen on the face of Tainaka Ritsu ever since she woke up four months ago.

Mio began to choke within her sobs, she was too lost of words to say any thing but there was this little thing that bugged her.

"R-ritsu…" she managed to force the words out, "Where… How… The money…" swallowing her saliva, "This pedal… I remember i-it costed about… $200…"

And the reply was a little chuckle.

"Heh, yeh, this baby here sure was expensive," Ritsu grinned. If she still had her arms, at this point of time she would surely have scratched the back of her head. "Otherwise why would you think I'll sit here for hours per day, playing my harmonica?"

The taller girl heart skipped a little.

_W-what…?_

Her eyes widen as she slowly squatted down beside Ritsu, eyes still fixed on her. "You… You mean you've been begging money… For my birthday present?"

"Hey, don't make it sound so ugly. I was merely making a living, ok?" the grinning girl boasted. "I may be stubborn, but I only get stubborn for good reasons!"

Mio kept quiet. Again, she was lost of words. The grinning brunette was an idiot, she surely was. Making her best friend and mother worried like hell and there she was boasting so loudly, so proudly.

Almost silently, the grin dispersed into a soft smile. "Happy Birthday, Mio."

The mentioned girl wiped her tears away and stared straight into the amber eyes. She heaved a sigh through her nostrils and picked her hand up to mess the already-messy brownish locks. They giggled a little, catching attention of passer-bys together. Their childish ways brought little smiles onto some of the passer-bys' faces.

"Ritsu…"

Amber eyes glanced back into the grey ones. Soft smiles replaced both their giggling ones.

Suddenly, the raven hair girl pulled her best friend into an embrace, surprising the other girl. A tight squeeze and Mio whispered into the tiny ear lope beside her face.

"You're the best gift I've ever had, Ritsu."

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><p>AN: GAHHHH! How is it? How is it? The original idea I had was just… Ritsu working to get a gift for Mio, but Mio only replied to her that Ritsu was her best gift. Then BOOM came this plot! It's the first time I'm writing a one-shot, I hope it's ok. My biggest worry was it being too narrative. Please tell me how I can improve! I'm really excited to see reviews :D

By the way, good thing I do a bit of film photography. That's how I recognised Mio's camera as a Lomo LC-A+ (I wanted to buy one, if only it's not THAT expensive), and knows about some film stuffs. LC-A+ uses 35mm films, which has a total of 36 exposure, which 4 rolls =... 36 x 4. My Math sucks, please figure that out yourself.

Meanwhile, back to my Final Year Project. Dang it.

**OTANJOUBI OMEDATOU GOZAIMASU, AKIYAMA-SAN!**

Kaito  
>15-1-2012<p>

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><p>Review replies since I have anonymous readers :)<p>

**Malathebutler**: Thank you so much! :D Honestly, I have never really thought of making that 'write with her mouth' part to contain humour, but I thought it was heart-warming so I included it in. Thanks for your review!

**Alex**: I've read up before and I had a classmate who had it a few months back. Hairline fracture usually takes 6 weeks or more to recover, which is about enough time to let Mio miss her exams. You meant beginning as in... When Mio found her? I made it that when Ritsu was playing her harmonica, she was on the floor. That's why Mio had to pick her up to put her onto her wheelchair and push her home. I made Ritsu lose her limbs, but she still has her hip, so I guess it's possible for her to _jump_ down her seat to the floor? x) Ehh... I guess I got the tune wrong, since I don't study music. It was _supposed_ to be 'Happy Birthday' tune. X_X Sorry about it! Heh, yeh, I liked the idea of them helping and caring each other in their own way. The... 'Stubborn-yet-I-still-care-about-you-baka' kindda way. Thank you!

Thank you to everyone who read this fanfic! :D  
>Kaito<br>23-1-2012


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